scholarly journals Conflicting Masculinities in Ha Jin’s Waiting: Talented Scholars and Ruthless Men of Action in China’s Mao and Post-Mao Eras

NAN Nü ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-136
Author(s):  
Lezhou Su ◽  
Derek Hird
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Male Character ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Emotional Life ◽  
Reform Era ◽  
Book Award ◽  
Ha Jin ◽  
National Book ◽  
Chinese Male ◽  
The U.S

Abstract As a highly acclaimed novel for which Ha Jin won the U.S. National Book Award in 1999, Waiting covers the period from the early 1960s to the early 1980s, encompassing the Cultural Revolution through the early reform era. Its oft-noted central concern is the suppression of emotional life, and by extension humanity, in the totalitarian climate of Mao’s regime. This article offers a new reading, which foregrounds the novel’s use of masculinities as a central theme and driver of the plot. Through the prism of Kam Louie’s wen-wu (literary accomplishment – military prowess) dyad, this study focuses on Ha Jin’s critique of the socialist-era trajectories of two historically prominent Chinese male character types: the intellectually-oriented man of book learning and the physically-driven man of action. It shows how Waiting illuminates the conditions underlying a pervasive social and psychological paralysis of male intellectuals and the contrasting empowerment of a predatory class of nouveau riche entrepreneurs.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Germana
Keyword(s):  
Book Award ◽  
National Book ◽  
Acceptance Speech

In “Brave Words for a Startling Occasion,” the acceptance speech he wrote for the National Book Award presentation ceremony at which he was honored, Ellison likens himself and his fellow novelists to Menelaus and his companions trying to find their way back home in Homer’s ...

A Southern Drawl from beyond the Grave

1966 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 99-101
Author(s):  
Rene Jordan
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Flannery O'connor ◽  
Pulitzer Prize ◽  
New Yorker ◽  
Book Award ◽  
National Book

The bell has finally tolled for Flannery O'Connor. The National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize have both passed up the opportunity to honor her posthumous collection of short stories, Everything that Rises Must Converge. Still, you can't help wondering what best-sellerdom could have done to a book like this. Few will read it through and most of those who stop at the halfway mark will become rabid anti-O'Connorites. Of all the first-rate American writers of the century, she is the easiest to put down. Her characters are self-conciously larger than life, her prose laden with portent in every semi-colon, her plotting so relentlessly tragic that every sentence is like a step – inevitable and often predictable – toward a witches' brew of a Grand Guignol finale. Impatient readers will feel Flannery is getting nowhere pretty slow. After some stirring and simmering of emotions, they'll quit and stop reading short of the climax, with the worst possible results. An O'Connor story is not one of those “New Yorker” Flirtations that ramble charmingly and stop coquettishly: Flannery O'Connor is no playful, teasing minx.

Ursula K. Le Guin

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra J. Lindow
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
American Literature ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
Contemporary American Literature ◽  
Left Hand ◽  
Radcliffe College ◽  
Neil Gaiman ◽  
Book Award ◽  
National Book

One of the most influential voices in contemporary American literature, Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929–d. 2018) began publishing in the 1960s and soon became known for her courageous exploration of ethics, ecology, and diversity using fantastic and futuristic settings. Elevating fantasy and science fiction from pulp-era sword and sorcery and space opera, her fiction explores and condemns chauvinistic traditions of colonialism, nationalism, sexism, and racism. Through her literary approach to genre themes and settings, she inspired not only generations of genre writers but also many mainstream writers who incorporated fantastic elements in their work. Ursula Kroeber was born on in Berkeley, California. Her parents were the Alfred Kroeber, pioneering anthropologist, and Theodora Kroeber, author of Ishi in Two Worlds. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1951, earned a masters degree from Columbia University in 1952, and married historian Charles Le Guin in 1953. A prolific writer, she published more than sixty books including novels for adults and young adults, picture books, short story collections, critical nonfiction, poetry, screenplays, and works of translation. Genre and mainstream recognition occurred throughout her career. Her first fantasy novel, A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), earned the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. Her groundbreaking novel The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) won Hugo and Nebula Awards. She was only the second woman to receive both honors for one book. The Farthest Shore (1973) won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. The Dispossessed (1974) won Locus, Nebula, and Hugo Awards. Overall, her novels alone received five Locus, four Nebulas, two Hugos, and one World Fantasy Award. In 1989 she accepted the Pilgrim Award for her critical work. In 1994, 1996, and 1997, she earned Tiptree Awards for her exploration of gender through her depiction of androgyny and alternative cultures that privilege nonheteronormative marriage. Le Guin’s lifetime achievement awards recognize her importance in American literature. In 2000, the US Library of Congress named her a Living Legend for her significant contributions to America’s cultural heritage. In 2002, she won the PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in short fiction and the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers Association. In 2014, she received the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. In his introduction to her National Book Award acceptance speech, author Neil Gaiman describes her as someone who made him not only a better writer but also a better person as a writer.

Retrieving the Past—The Historical Theme in Penelope Lively’s Fictions

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
pp. 2014
Author(s):  
Xiaotang Lv
Keyword(s):  
Past History ◽  
Stream Of Consciousness ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Road ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Book Award ◽  
National Book ◽  
Narrative Techniques ◽  
Present Life

Penelope Lively (1933- ), the contemporary British writer, was first known mainly as a children’s writer prior to her winning the 1987 Booker Prize with her widely praised novel Moon Tiger (1987). The Road to Lichfield, published in 1977, is her first adult novel which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Treasures of Time (1979), her second adult novel, was the winner of Great Britain’s first National Book Award for fiction in 1980 and the Arts Council National Book Award. In her literary fictions, Lively interweaves the present and the past -- history, the public, collective past, and memory, the private and personal past -- together with the application of various narrative techniques, such as flashback, stream of consciousness, psychological time, etc. A predominant theme running through her literary world is her consistent focus on history. This essay intend to study Penelope Lively’s understanding and interpretation of history, and draw this conclusion: Although a complete understanding of history is impossible, yet as we realize our subjectivity and misunderstanding of history we can try to understand it in a new way and integrate it into the present life.

scholarly journals “Homosex, Hermaph, or Trans-a-vest…Hate Fags? The Answer’s Yes”: Hypermasculinity in America and Commodified Homophobia Through the Lens of Hip Hop

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Annalisa Ciro
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Rap Music ◽  
Youth Of Color ◽  
Active Participant ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
Communities Of Color ◽  
Lgbt Community ◽  
American Society ◽  
The U.S

Birthed in the Bronx in response to socioeconomic frustration and political invigoration, hip hop equipped youth of color in the U.S. with a dynamic platform to both communication resentment towards structures of systemic oppression and act as an outlet for fun, innovative, and uninhibited creative expression. However, as this cultural revolution transformed from an underground movement to a mainstream commodity, rap music that reflected stereotypes of Black hyper-masculinity and heteronormativity were prioritized, and rappers who embodied these roles and the ideologies paired with them rose to the top of the charts. As a result of the music industry’s prioritization of hyper-masculine, heteronormative rap, a genre with the power to project the voices of marginalized communities of color in America at the same time became an active participant in the marginalizing of another—the LGBT+ community. Yet as rap music is notorious for its attacks on the LGBT+ community, I argue that this homophobia is not contained or exacerbated within hip hop, but rather is a by-product of a homophobic society that, through hyper-masculine and heteronormative norms, nurtures these attitudes within the male-driven genre. Through a textual analysis of rap lyrics, my paper highlights where the homophobic attitudes within hip hop stem from by locating broader societal structures that foster these ideals outside the genre. Taking this step back and looking at the larger issues within American society that nurture this homophobic environment within hip hop allows us to understand and address the phenomenon within the genre more clearly.

The Effect of Franchising on Establishment Performance in the U.S. Restaurant Industry

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Sveum ◽  
Michael Sykuta
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Managerial Discretion ◽  
Restaurant Industry ◽  
Retail Trade ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Work Processes ◽  
Trade Data ◽  
Limited Service ◽  
The U.S

A central theme in much of the franchising literature is that franchising mitigates the Principle–agent problems between the owner of the franchise company and the operator of the local establishment by making the operator the owner-franchisee of the establishment. Despite the centrality of that assumption in the literature, there is little empirical evidence to support it. We use Census of Retail Trade data for essentially all full- and limited-service restaurants in the United States to test whether franchisee-ownership affects performance at the establishment level. We find a strong and robust franchise effect for full-service restaurants but little effect among limited-service restaurants. We argue this difference is consistent with agency costs given differences in work processes and the importance of managerial discretion.

Sigrid Nunez on the Writer’s Life

MELUS ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 194-202
Author(s):  
Lu Sun
Keyword(s):  
Literary Culture ◽  
Writing Programs ◽  
Teaching Experiences ◽  
Personal Story ◽  
Susan Sontag ◽  
Book Award ◽  
The Status ◽  
National Book ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Looking Back

Abstract The Friend (2018), the seventh novel of Sigrid Nunez, won the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction. It not only tells a touching story about the human-canine bond between the narrator and a huge Great Dane but also involves much meditation on writing as a profession and the universal concerns of humanity. Looking back at her writing career, Nunez talks about her beliefs as a writer, her observation of the contemporary literary scene, her evaluation of the status of fiction in the current era, her teaching experiences in writing programs, and her personal story as a child of immigrants and a former assistant to Susan Sontag. According to Nunez, a life of solitude is conducive to writing books, and experiences of frustration are normal for a writer. However, she maintains that writing should be seen as a vocation instead of a means of self-advancement. With respect to new trends in literary culture, Nunez believes the house of fiction does have many rooms, and the definition of a novel has become much broader.

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